Hydrogen has an explosive mix over a very wide range of mixtures. In air, at 16-75% by volume it will explode, so a leak is very likely to cause an explosive atmosphere and, considering the activation energy of a hydrogen-air mixture is essentially zero, an explosion is quite likely.SageBrush wrote:I understand why a leak might catch fire, but why would it explode ?mux wrote: All this being said, it seems like at least the Norway explosion had nothing to do with the pressure vessels and was 'just' a hydrogen explosion. This is a much better outcome than e.g. a pressure vessel failure, because hydrogen leaks can be designed against very easily (just ventilation and roof geometry to prevent build-up of hydrogen gas and the formation of an explosive atmosphere). They dodged a bullet here, unless they find more issues.
Also @GRA: Qualitative arguments are not enough to attack a quantitative argument.